


Home

by Babyshark35



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Bar fights, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 15:12:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babyshark35/pseuds/Babyshark35
Summary: Post 1x10. Michael gets into a bar fight at the Wild Pony and Alex has to come pick up the pieces.





	Home

It had been over a week since Michael had heard from Alex. He had asked for some time to process everything, after Michael had shown him the fallout shelter and the console. At first, Michael had attempted to be understanding, but the more days that went by without a word from Alex, the bigger the pit in his stomach and ache in his heart grew. 

Michael had not been back to the Wild Pony since returning Maria’s necklace. He knew he had fucked up. He should have never slept with her, even if Alex had pushed him away, seemingly for good, the previous day. Nevertheless, he felt guilty putting her in that position and wanted to give her some space. 

The stress of the unknown with Alex becoming too much for him, he needed a drink and some distraction. He decided it was time to bite the bullet. He walked into the bar and landed heavily on one of the bar stools. Maria had seen him come in. She walked over to him and silently poured him a shot of tequila. 

“What? Not gonna ask me to pay up front?” Michael asked sarcastically, barely able to throw up his usual cocky front. 

“This one’s on the house. You look like you need it.”

“Ha. Well, you’re not wrong, but telling your customers that they look like shit doesn’t seem like good business sense,” Michael spat out, slamming back the shot. 

Maria gestured around to the full bar. There were several of the usuals, some other locals and some out-of-towners. 

“Touché.” Michael responded, giving her a smirk. “And thanks.” She nodded, laughing as she walked away to serve another customer. 

Michael had missed this, the back and forth banter with Maria. Maybe things could go back to normal between them. As quickly as thoughts of Alex had escaped him, they came rushing back. He pictured Alex’s hurt expression as Michael had pulled out Maria’s necklace from his boot. Reaching over the bar, he grabbed the bottle of tequila, earning him a glare from Maria.

Michael was three sheets to the wind in the matter of an hour. He had drank most of the bottle by the time some out of town prick bumped him at the bar, making him spill what was left. 

“What the hell, man? Watch where you are walking!” Michael seethed, standing up to look the guy in the eye. 

“Aw, did the sad, lonely cowboy spill his drink? Looks like you may have had enough.” The guy laughed, pointing to the empty bottle on the counter. 

Michael glared hard at the man, struggling to keep his powers in check, as some of the bottles behind the bar started rattling. 

“You really don’t want to mess with me tonight, buddy. I can promise you that.” Michael spat. 

Maria had been eyeing the interaction from across the bar. She could see Michael was about to lose it and quickly jumped in between them, pushing Michael back. 

“Guerin, you need to go. Now.” 

Michael’s narrowed eyes did not leave the man in front of him as he responded, his voice gentler with her. 

“Yeah, sure. Leaving.” 

He turned to grab his cowboy hat from atop the counter as Maria walked back behind the bar. The man leaned into Michael’s ear and gruffly whispered, so only Michael could hear him. “So you gotta have the hot bartender break up your fights, huh? Once you’re gone, I’ll show her a what a real man is.”

That was it. Michael’s fist landed hard on the man’s jaw, causing him to stagger and take several steps back. 

“Guerin! Out! Now!” Maria yelled. 

Michael turned swiftly to look at her, eyes wild, before nodding and storming out of the bar. He was too drunk and angry to drive back to his trailer, so he decided to lay in the back of his truck to try to calm down and sober up. He hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep, until he awoke to laughter coming from the bar. 

“Looks like lonely cowboy sleeps in his truck, as well as gets smashed alone at the bar.” 

Michael jumped from the truck quickly as his quieted anger bubbled to the surface again. He hesitated though, as he realized the man was not alone. He had three friends with him as he sauntered over to where Michael stood, rubbing his jaw. 

“I think I DO want to mess with you tonight.”

Michael knew he could take them if he used his powers, but he couldn’t in such a public place. Without them, he knew he was fucked. He barely put up a fight as the man returned a blow to his jaw. He stumbled back, tripping over a rock, landing hard on his ass. The man pulled him up by collar of his shirt before punching him again. The other the three men started kicking him repeatedly in the ribs. He just laid there taking it, too tired, physically and emotionally to do anything. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was a boot to the face. 

He wasn’t sure how long he was out. He felt someone shaking his shoulders and heard muffled words, but was unable to decipher them. He blinked several times trying to focus, realizing only one eye was responding, as the other was swollen shut. He focused his one open eye on Maria crouched down in front of him. 

“Jesus, Guerin. Look at you.” She sighed. “Can you stand up? You need a hospital.” 

“No hospitals. It’s nothing.” Michael laughed, teeth covered in blood from a split lip, as he moved to sit up against the sharp pain in his ribs. 

“I figured you’d say that. So I called Alex.”

Michael quickly sobered. “You did what? Fuck, Maria.” 

“The bar is still open, I can’t leave and you can’t drive. Here he is now.” Maria gestured to the headlights pulling into the parking lot. 

Michael just sat there, looking at the ground, when he heard the familiar, uneven tread of Alex walking up to them. Alex reached down, lightly lifting Michael’s chin to get a look at him. 

“Jesus, Guerin.” Alex gasped, kneeling down beside them, taking in Michael’s bloodied appearance. His left eye was swollen shut, he had a deep gash in his forehead and a dark purple bruise was forming on his jaw. 

“My name is Michael, not Jesus and I’m fine. Just pissed off a couple of pricks.” He hissed, as he struggled to his feet. He stumbled backwards, but Alex caught his arm quickly, steadying him. 

“I got this Maria, you go back inside. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Maria nodded, leaving the two of them alone. Alex then turned his attention back to Michael. 

“You didn’t have to come.” 

Alex ignored him. “You probably have a concussion. You shouldn’t be alone tonight. Do you want me to take you to Max’s or Isobel’s?” 

“Neither. I can’t handle a self-righteous lecture from Max right now, or Isobel feeling sorry for me.”

“Fine. Then you are coming with me back to my cabin.” 

Michael looked at Alex, questioningly, with his one open eye before grunting and nodding. Alex led him back to his car helping him get into the front seat. He handed him some gauze from a first aid kit he had, indicating for Michael to hold pressure on his head wound. 

The drive back to Alex’s cabin was quiet and awkward. Neither of them spoke and Michael just stared out the window. Once Alex parked the car, he helped Michael inside to the couch and carefully removed his jacket. 

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” 

Michael leaned back slowly into the couch, wincing at the pain, from pretty much everywhere. Alex returned after a few moments with a larger, military-issue first aid kit, several ice packs and a bottle of nail polish remover. He handed Michael the bottle as he started digging through the kit. 

“Thanks.” Michael muttered quietly, flinching at the pain in his ribs as he reached for the bottle. He gulped the whole thing down quickly. “Why did you have this?”

“I spent a lot of time here as a kid. Found it under the bathroom sink while I was cleaning.”

Alex pulled back the gauze Michael was holding to look at the wound on his head. It was deep, but a straight cut. Michael hissed as Alex cleaned it with antiseptic before applying several butterfly bandages to hold it closed. He added some antibacterial ointment, then taped some gauze over it. He brushed the split on Michael’s lip gently with more antiseptic to remove the crusted blood. He then went to pull up Michael’s shirt. Michael hesitated briefly then relented, allowing Alex to carefully pull it over his head, revealing ugly purple bruising covering most of his chest and ribcage. Alex gasped audibly, but recovered quickly, then gently placed ice packs on the deepest parts of the bruising, carefully wrapping bandages around Michael’s body to keep them in place. He handed Michael the last ice pack to place on his jaw and eye, before he sat back on the couch eyeing Michael, skeptically. 

“What?” Michael asked, when he realized Alex was watching him. 

“Why didn’t you fight back?” Nodding to the barely red knuckles on his right hand. 

“Well, partly because there were four of them and I was fucked regardless, since I couldn’t use my powers in such a public place, and partly because I’m tired of fighting.” He looked Alex directly in the eye as he spoke the last part.

Alex got the message and sighed, rubbing his hand across his face. 

“I’m sorry that I haven’t reached out to you since...since you showed me your work. I just needed some time to think.”

Michael let out a laugh, regretting it instantly as his ribs betrayed him. “Time to think about what? How you are going to tell me it’s over? Again? After I told you and showed you all of me? I get it, don’t worry about it.”

“That’s not it, at all.” Alex stood up and let out a frustrated yell, startling Michael. He then sighed again, sat back down, and stared at the floor. 

“I know that’s how you’d see it. I know you have no confidence in me, that you didn’t believe me when I told you that I’m done walking away and I don’t blame you. I’ve fucked up a lot. Now I guess it’s your turn.”

“My turn to what? To fuck up?” Michael asked, confused or concussed, he didn’t know where this was going. 

“To walk away.” 

Alex looked at Michael, tears forming in his eyes, before he stood and walked over to the closet to grab his backpack. He sat back down beside Michael and handed him the contents of the bag, the missing piece to the console. Michael looked at the piece and then to Alex, his mind finally connecting the dots. 

“Alex...”

“It’s the final piece of the console. I was always going to give it to you, but I needed time to figure out how..how I was going to say goodbye.” Tears were streaming down his face at this point. “I couldn’t. I can’t. It’s you.” Alex was struggling to find the words, his emotions overwhelming him. 

Michael set the piece on the table in front of them and reached for Alex’s hand. He lifted it and placed a soft, painful kiss to his palm. Alex all but crumbled at the tender gesture. He was beaten to a pulp, physically and emotionally, yet Michael was still wanting to comfort Alex. 

“Alex, I’m not walking away.”

“But you want to leave. The planet. And with this you can.”

“Alex.” Michael spoke softly, absentmindedly rubbing the back of Alex’s hand with his thumb. “I started building the console because I wanted to find my family and a home. Max and Isobel, I know they love me and I feel the same, but they had that growing up. They had a home with a family that loved them. I was jealous, I wanted that, but I could never find it here. This piece is the last part of a puzzle that I’ve been struggling to figure out since I hatched from the pod. Where I belong and where my home is. Looking at it now and you, I realized something. Home can be a person. It’s you, Alex.” 

Alex outwardly sobbed at his words. He couldn’t believe he was hearing them. He raised his hands to cover his face, struggling to contain his outburst, but couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Michael reached over and pulled Alex’s hands down so that he could look him in the eyes. 

“I love you, Alex. And I could never leave if I knew I had you.” 

“You have me. I love you, Michael. I’m so sorry for ever making you doubt it or me.”

Alex reached out his hands and gently cupped Michael’s bruised face. He placed tender kisses everywhere he hoped wouldn’t cause him pain. Even though Michael knew it would hurt, he pulled Alex in for a deep kiss. When they pulled away, Michael gave Alex a bruised and swollen, yet loving smile. 

Alex laughed, wiping the tears from his eyes. “You really do look terrible. We should get you to bed. I’m sure you are freezing with all those ice packs on you.”

“Ah, trying to take advantage of an injured alien. I see how it is.” Michael smirked. 

Alex caressed Michael’s non-bruised cheek with his thumb, kissed him on his forehead and stood, carefully helping Michael to his feet. He gently unwrapped the bandages holding the ice packs to Michael’s ribs, dropping them on the floor. Alex led Michael to the bedroom, helping his slip out of his pants and into the bed. Michael was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, a soft smile on his face. Alex quickly stripped, removed his prosthetic and joined him. Alex desperately wanted to wrap his arms tightly around Michael and never let him go, but he couldn’t, not until they could get Max to heal his bruises. He resigned to holding Michael's scarred hand in both of his, kissing each damaged knuckle before pulling it firmly against his chest, holding it to his heart. He knew he’d have to stay awake all night, Michael did most likely have a concussion, but Alex was happy to watch the man he loved sleep. He would be there in the morning when Michael woke up and for every morning after. They were together. They were home.


End file.
